Bard Conservatory of Music News Archive

Bard College announces the appointment of world-renowned composer, conductor, and artist Tan Dun as dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of teaching young musicians both new music and music history, while deepening an understanding of its connection to history, art and culture, and society. He will also help to build the synergy between Eastern and Western studies at the Conservatory, including its recently founded US–China Music Institute.

“We are delighted that Tan Dun, a conductor, composer, and artist whose work bridges cultures and genres and embraces a wide definition of music, will lead Bard’s Conservatory of Music,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein.

“The language of music is universal and can connect all kinds of people from diverse cultures, languages, and with different dreams. I look forward to working with the students of Bard’s Conservatory of Music in imagining and reimagining their careers as artists and helping them become even more connected to our growing world and widening musical soundscape,” said Tan Dun.

Tan Dun will begin his tenure as dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music on July 1, 2019.

About Tan Dun
Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. Now living in New York City, Tan Dun was born and raised in a rural Hunan village in the People’s Republic of China where millennia-old shamanistic cultural traditions still survived before Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution took hold. Following the end of the Cultural Revolution, China reopened its Central Conservatory and Tan Dun was one of only 30 selected to attend among thousands of applicants. By the time he arrived in the United States in 1986 to pursue his Doctorate at Columbia University in musical arts, where he soon immersed himself in the music of John Cage and the New York downtown avant-garde scene, Tan Dun was already famous in China. In these past two decades, Tan Dun has transcended stylistic and cultural boundaries to become one of the world’s most famous and sought-after composers. He has created several new artistic formats, which—like opera—encompass sound, sight, narrative, and ritual. In addition to his contributions to the repertoire of opera and motion pictures scores, Tan’s new formats include: orchestral theater, which recontextualizes the orchestra and the concert-going experience; organic music, which explores new realms of sound through primal elements such as water, paper, and stone; and multimedia extravaganzas, which incorporate a variety of cutting-edge technologies.

A UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador and winner of today’s most prestigious honors—including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently, Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement—Tan Dun makes music that is played throughout the world by leading orchestras in opera houses, at international festivals, and on radio and television. This past year, Tan Dun conducted the grand opening celebration of Disneyland Shanghai, which was broadcast to a record-breaking audience worldwide.

As a conductor of innovative programs around the world, Tan Dun has led the China tours of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. His current season includes leading the Orchestre National de Lyon in a five-city China tour, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in a four-city tour of Switzerland and Belgium, as well as engagements with the Rai National Symphony Orchestra in Italy, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, where he was recently named artistic ambassador. Tan Dun currently serves as the honorary artistic director of the China National Symphony Orchestra. Next season, he will conduct the English Chamber Orchestra in their tour to China. Tan Dun has led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Tan Dun’s individual voice has been heard widely by international audiences. His first Internet Symphony, which was commissioned by Google/YouTube, has reached over 23 million people online. His Organic Music Trilogy of Water, Paper, and Ceramic has frequented major concert halls and festivals. Paper Concerto was premiered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the opening of the Walt Disney Hall. His multimedia work The Map, premiered by YoYo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has toured more than 30 countries worldwide. Its manuscript has been collected by the Carnegie Hall Composers Gallery. His Orchestral Theatre IV: The Gate was premiered by Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra and crosses the cultural boundaries of Peking Opera, Western Opera and puppet theatre traditions. Other important premieres include Four Secret Roads of Marco Polo for the Berlin Philharmonic, and Piano Concerto “The Fire” for Lang Lang and the New York Philharmonic. In recent years, his percussion concerto, The Tears of Nature, for soloist Martin Grubinger premiered in 2012 with the NDR Symphony Orchestra and Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women Symphony for 13 Microfilms, Harp and Orchestra was co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Most recently, Tan Dun conducted the premiere of his new oratorio epic Buddha Passion at the Dresden Festival with the Münchner Philharmoniker; the piece was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Dresden Festival and will go on to have performances in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Singapore, and London in  coming seasons.

For Tan Dun the marriage of composition and inspiration has always culminated in his operatic creations. Marco Polo was commissioned by the Edinburgh Festival and has had four different productions, including, most prominently, with De Nederlandse Opera, directed by Pierre Audi; The First Emperor, with Placido Domingo in the title role, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera of New York; Tea: A Mirror of Soul, premiered at Japan’s Suntory Hall, has since had new productions with Opera de Lyon, a co-production by Santa Fe Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia; and Peony Pavilion, directed by Peter Sellars, which has had over 50 performances at major festivals in Vienna, Paris, London, and Rome.

As a visual artist, Tan Dun’s work has been featured at the opening of the China Pavilion at the 56th Venice Art Biennale. Other solo exhibitions include New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Beijing’s Chambers Fine Art Gallery, and the Shanghai Gallery of Art. Most recently, Tan Dun conducted the Juilliard Orchestra in the world premiere of his Symphony of Colors: Terracotta for the opening of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s epic exhibition The Age of Empires. 

Tan Dun holds a master’s in composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a doctorate from New York’s Columbia University in Musical Arts.
 
Tan Dun records for Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Opus Arte, BIS, and Naxos. His recordings have garnered many accolades, including a Grammy Award (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and nominations (The First Emperor; Marco Polo; Pipa Concerto), Japan’s Recording Academy Award for Best Contemporary Music CD (Water Passion after St. Matthew), and the BBC’s Best Orchestral Album (Death and Fire).
 

A glimpse into the varied teaching and performance career of the renowned Stephanie Blythe, who will soon join Bard as the artistic director of the Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program.

Julia Bullock MM ’11, one of opera’s fastest-rising stars and 2018–19 MetLiveArts artist in residence, is using her artistic platform for social activism, to glorious effect.

Celebrated opera singer and recitalist Stephanie Blythe has been appointed artistic director of the Bard Conservatory of Music Graduate Vocal Arts Program effective July 2019. 

When the composer Joan Tower went to Bennington College to study music, her teachers told her she needed to compose something.

“So I wrote a piece,” she recalled recently, laughing, “and it was a disaster from beginning to end. I said, ‘I know I can do better than that.’ So I did that for the next 40 years, trying to create a piece that wasn’t a disaster.”

Read the full article from the New York Times

Joan Tower, Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts, talks with the New York Times about her more than 50-year career as a composer and educator, and the milestone of turning 80 this fall.

The China Now Music Festival concluded at Carnegie Hall with world-premiere compositions by faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Bard professor and composer Joan Tower recently celebrated her 80th birthday with concerts at Bard and in New York City. She talks about her action-packed career.

Bernard Herrmann’s spine-tingling score will be performed in the Sosnoff Theater by the Bard College Conservatory of Music Orchestra, conducted by James Bagwell.

The concert program, featuring world premieres of Tower’s recent compositions, will be performed at Bard’s Fisher Center.

The Bard Youth China Orchestra presented free concerts as part of the US-China Music Institute’s summer academy on the Bard campus.

Presented by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, in partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, the free concerts will feature more than 50 musicians, aged 13–22, who have come together for a two-week summer academy on the Bard campus. 
 

The mezzo-soprano performs the lead in PATH New Music Theater’s multimedia opera Simulacrum in New York City this weekend.

A luminous triple bill of operatic rarities, exploring the rites and rituals of marriage: Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Harbison’s Full Moon in March, and Sokolovic’s Svadba.

The Graduate Vocal Arts Program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music presents a luminous triple bill of operatic rarities exploring the rites and rituals of marriage. The program features three fully staged operas: Pulcinella, by Igor Stravinsky, and Full Moon in March, by John Harbison, James Bagwell, conductor; and Svadba, by Ana Sokolovic, Jackson McKinnon ’16, conductor. The triple bill will be performed by singers from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program accompanied by The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra on Friday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 11 at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. 

January 28 Concert at Bard’s Fisher Center Celebrates New Collaboration between Bard Conservatory and Central Conservatory (China)

On Sunday, January 28, Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts hosted a celebratory concert to launch the Chinese Music Development Initiative, a groundbreaking new collaboration between the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music (in Beijing, China).

The Orchestra Now, conducted by Jindong Cai, collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra of the Central Conservatory, conducted by Chen Bing, in Music from China: East Meets West—Contemporary Works for Chinese and Western Instruments. The sold-out concert in the Sosnoff Theater featured six new works by Chinese composers Chen Xinruo, Tang Jianping, Guo Wenjing, Chen Danbu, Zhou Yanjia, and Liu Wenjin, all using a combination of Chinese and Western instruments, with renowned soloists Yu Hongmei (erhu), Zhou Wang (guzheng), and Zhang Qiang (pipa).

In a letter of welcome in the concert program, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wrote, "This innovative collaboration will give both the East and the West new opportunities to learn, understand, and appreciate each other through the power of music."

In her speech at the concert, Zhang Qiyue, China's consul general in New York, remarked on how education in Western music has flourished in China, and yet very few students in the United States are familiar with traditional Chinese music. "That's why the partnership is so important as a milestone of the US-China exchanges in the culture and music fields," she said.

The Chinese Music Development Initiative was formally established at a signing ceremony in Beijing in December. This new initiative, managed by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard Conservatory, offers the first comprehensive program for the study and performance of Chinese music in the United States, consisting of several components: a degree program for Chinese instruments, an annual Chinese Music Festival, a program of scholarly conferences, and a summer academy for high school age students.

"This agreement is a milestone in Bard College’s international engagement," said Bard President Leon Botstein. "Our partnership with the Central Conservatory will result in deeper connections with China’s vibrant musical life and rich heritage."

"The Central Conservatory of Music and Bard Conservatory have taken the lead in opening the Chinese culture in foreign conservatories," said Central Conservatory President Yu Feng. "This innovative step has historical significance in the development of Chinese music in the West. Our cooperation with Bard College, one of the finest liberal arts colleges in America, with a rich history of 157 years, sends out a clear Chinese voice to the world that we have entered into a new cooperation mode and a new stage through the integration of music and culture exchanges," Yu added.

Bard Conservatory Director Robert Martin noted, "This is the culmination of years of work building relationships with the music world of China, including a tour of the Conservatory Orchestra to China in 2012. This agreement is a major achievement of our new US-China Music Institute, led by the distinguished conductor, author, and educator Jindong Cai, and a wonderful enrichment of the life of the Bard community."

Institute director Jindong Cai commented, "More than 400 years ago, the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci presented a Ming Dynasty emperor with a Western musical instrument, planting the seeds of Western music in China. Now we at Bard hope to make a similar contribution, deepening the development of Chinese music in the West. I am sure it will not take four centuries!"

The collaboration between the Central Conservatory and the Bard Conservatory will be overseen by President Yu Feng of the Central Conservatory and Director Robert Martin of the Bard Conservatory of Music. The partnership will be strengthened by bilateral faculty appointments: President Yu Feng will have a faculty appointment at the Bard Conservatory, and Bard President Leon Botstein will have a faculty appointment in the Central Conservatory. Hongmei Yu, chair of the Traditional Music Department of the Central Conservatory, will have a faculty appointment in the Bard Conservatory, and Jindong Cai will have a faculty appointment in the Central Conservatory.

The Initiative will be managed by a committee led by Jindong Cai and Hongmei Yu, with Hongzhu Liu, director of the Central Conservatory’s Office of Foreign Affairs, and Associate Director Frank Corliss of the Bard College Conservatory.

More Information

US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music

Press Coverage

Traditional Chinese Music Hits Right Note in US College Program (China Daily)

US College Program Includes Chinese Music for First Time (China Daily)

Photography from World Journal (in Chinese)

Video from Sinovision (in Chinese)

On Sunday, January 28, Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts hosted a celebratory concert to launch the Chinese Music Development Initiative, a groundbreaking new collaboration between the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music (in Beijing, China).

Irish-born pianist Isabelle O’Connell describes her journey from Rathgar in Dublin to performing at Carnegie Hall and teaching at Bard.

Boston Modern Orchestra Project will honor Professor Joan Tower in a concert on February 9 championing five of her orchestral works.